diff --git a/Gemfile.lock b/Gemfile.lock
index 9f3d3c394..95c65b97b 100644
--- a/Gemfile.lock
+++ b/Gemfile.lock
@@ -98,7 +98,6 @@ GEM
     ast (2.4.2)
     autoprefixer-rails (10.4.7.0)
       execjs (~> 2)
-    base64 (0.1.1)
     bindex (0.8.1)
     bootsnap (1.14.0)
       msgpack (~> 1.2)
@@ -243,7 +242,7 @@ GEM
     public_suffix (5.0.0)
     puma (6.0.0)
       nio4r (~> 2.0)
-    racc (1.6.0)
+    racc (1.7.3)
     rack (2.2.4)
     rack-mini-profiler (3.0.0)
       rack (>= 1.2.0)
@@ -310,8 +309,7 @@ GEM
       rspec-mocks (~> 3.12)
       rspec-support (~> 3.12)
     rspec-support (3.12.0)
-    rubocop (1.57.1)
-      base64 (~> 0.1.1)
+    rubocop (1.57.2)
       json (~> 2.3)
       language_server-protocol (>= 3.17.0)
       parallel (~> 1.10)
@@ -322,7 +320,7 @@ GEM
       rubocop-ast (>= 1.28.1, < 2.0)
       ruby-progressbar (~> 1.7)
       unicode-display_width (>= 2.4.0, < 3.0)
-    rubocop-ast (1.29.0)
+    rubocop-ast (1.30.0)
       parser (>= 3.2.1.0)
     rubocop-performance (1.15.1)
       rubocop (>= 1.7.0, < 2.0)
diff --git a/config/initializers/settings.rb b/config/initializers/settings.rb
index 381c25655..a3232590c 100644
--- a/config/initializers/settings.rb
+++ b/config/initializers/settings.rb
@@ -18,7 +18,10 @@ def instance # rubocop:todo Metrics/AbcSize
       # but the creates an immutable setting object that messes with tests.
       # Immutability is good here though, so we should probably fix that.
       # Added flag onto safe_load to allow read of anchors (aliases) in yml files.
-      @instance = Hashie::Mash.new(YAML.safe_load_file(configuration_filename, [Symbol], [], true))
+      config_file_descriptor = File.open(configuration_filename, 'r:bom|utf-8')
+      @instance = Hashie::Mash.new(YAML.safe_load(config_file_descriptor, permitted_classes: [Symbol]))
+
+      #@instance = Hashie::Mash.new(safe_content)
 
       # To view a list of pipeline groups and respective pipelines:
       # e.g. Settings.pipelines.group_by(&:pipeline_group).transform_values { |pipelines| pipelines.map(&:name) }